News Digest — 10/8/24
IDF Eliminates Hezbollah Headquarters’ Commander
The IAF conducted a precise, intelligence-based strike in the area of Beirut early on Tuesday morning (8th), eliminating Suhail Hussein Husseini, Commander of the Hezbollah terror organization headquarters.
The headquarters oversees the logistics within the Hezbollah terrorist organization and is in charge of budgeting and management of its various units in the organization.
According to the IDF Husseini played a crucial role in weapons transfer between Iran and Hezbollah and was responsible for distributing the advanced weaponry among Hezbollah units, overseeing both the transportation and allocation of these arms. Additionally, he was a member of the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s senior military leadership council.
The headquarters includes Hezbollah’s Research and Development Unit, which is responsible for manufacturing precision-guided missiles and managing the storage and transportation of weapons in Lebanon.
In his role, Husseini was responsible for the budgeting and logistical management of Hezbollah’s most sensitive projects, including the organization’s war plans and other special operations, such as coordinating terrorist attacks against the State of Israel from Lebanon and Syria.
PM Meets US Senators: “Unlike The Holocaust, Today We Fight Back”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday (7th), at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, met with a bipartisan delegation of US Senators Led by Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “I deeply appreciate the visit by Senators Graham and Blumenthal on the day of commemoration, October 7th. It was the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, but unlike the Holocaust, we fight back. We’re fighting like lions with the support of the American government and the American people, and its representatives here. I want to thank you both for your stellar support for Israel throughout the war.”
US Senator Richard Blumenthal(D-CT) said, “Thank you , Mr. Prime Minister. We’re honored to be with you and we appreciate your giving us this opportunity to speak with you on this really agonizingly difficult day for your country and the people of Israel and all of us in the United States who feel so deeply that it was an absolutely abhorrent inhumane attack on the Jewish people. We’re here to say we have Israel’s back and Israel has the right to defend itself.”
US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said, “The reason people were killed on October 7th was they were Jewish. We’ve seen this movie before. We don’t want to see any more of those movies. Living in their own homeland. You said something that really struck me. No one should be a refugee in his own country. They’re going back to the north, folks. They’re going back to their kibbutzim. Whatever it takes to get your people back into their homes, you do it.”
“To my friends in France, you’ve got this all backwards. You should be doubling down on helping Israel, because the people that want to destroy Israel also want to destroy the French people. I get that. Israel is fighting our fight. We’re going to help them with their military needs,” added Graham.
“The Twin Towers fell not because of a hurricane, but because radical Islamist terrorists killed 3,000 of us on a single day. And they would kill all of us if they could. If Iran ever got a nuclear weapon, they would use it. The question would be who would they use it against first. Me? You? Saudi Arabia? We can never let that happen, so we’re going to help you,” Graham concluded.
Also attending the meeting were the Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy Adviser, Dr. Ophir Falk, the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson, Dr. Omer Dostri, and the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs North America Desk, Dor Shapira.
IDF Shoots Down Missile Fired From Yemen At Tel Aviv
Millions of Israelis were sent running for shelters on Monday evening (7th) as Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists fired a missile at the densely populated Tel Aviv region, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Following sirens that were activated in several areas in the center of the country, the Air Force successfully intercepted a surface-to-surface missile launched from Yemen,” the IDF posted on X.
The missile was intercepted outside of Israel’s borders.
Take-offs and landings were briefly suspended at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport due to the Yemeni threat.
The missile attack came as the Jewish state marked one year since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 cross-border massacre in which some 1,200 people, primarily Jewish civilians, were murdered, thousands were wounded and 251 were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday (6th), Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi in a televised address said that the Iranian-backed terrorist proxies throughout the region have “reached a point of inevitable confrontation” with Israel.
“Despite the scale of Israeli aggression, the inevitability of the enemy’s downfall is a certainty, grounded in religious and historical principles that must eventually be fulfilled,” the Yemeni terrorist claimed. According to a translation by Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV channel.
Yemen’s Houthi militia, an Iranian proxy force, has launched numerous attacks on Israel in support of Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
Israel’s Arrow defense system intercepted a surface-to-surface ballistic missile fired from Yemen on Sept. 27, according to the IDF.
On Sept. 15, Israel air defenses intercepted fragments of a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen that exploded over central Israel.
In July, a Houthi suicide drone killed a civilian in central Tel Aviv, in response to which Israel struck Yemen’s Hodeidah port in a major attack.
Late last month, the Israel Air Force carried out dozens of strikes in the area of Hodeidah. Jerusalem said the targets included “power plants and a seaport, which were used by the Houthis to transfer Iranian weapons to the region, in addition to military supplies and oil.”
IDF Increases To Three Divisions In Lebanon, May Increase To Significantly More
The IDF on Monday (7th) expanded to three divisions in the invasion of southern Lebanon, adding Division 91 to Divisions 98 and 36, while IDF sources said that the invasion force will likely significantly grow in the near future.
The maximum number that the IDF used in Gaza at the start of the war in October-November 2023 was five full divisions, and depending on varying division sizes, it could generally range between 25,000-50,000 troops, though the military did not specify any numbers in this particular case.
The massive increase after only Division 98 invaded Lebanon on September 30 could signal an effort to destroy Hezbollah weapons in southern Lebanon more rapidly or an evolving strategy to present a more robust force for holding the area as a bargaining chip for future negotiations over a new security balance between Israel and Hezbollah.
The IDF Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi on Friday (4th), conducted a situational assessment and tour at the 210th Division on the border of the Golan Heights along with the Commanding Officer of the Northern Command, MG Ori Gordon, and the Commanding Officer of the 210th Division, BG Yair Peli.
The IDF also said that it had recently attacked over 100 Hezbollah targets in Beirut.
IDF sources said that Hezbollah has had a massive project to try to bring its weapons from southern Lebanon to Beirut to save them from the IDF invasion, but that the IDF has followed these efforts and is acting aggressively to thwart them.
Next, IDF sources said that intelligence has been stronger with Hezbollah targets than it was with Hamas targets in bringing the Lebanese terror group to its knees much faster because of a mix of different factors, including Hezbollah’s structure as well as a higher investment in intelligence on Hezbollah for years.
Qatari Officials Claim Sinwar Is Still Alive And Is In Contact With Them
Several media sources, including Al-Arabiya and the Daily Mail, claim that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is alive and has renewed communication with Qatari mediators.
This claim is at odds with a recent Jerusalem Post report that a senior Qatari official said Sinwar never had direct communication with Qatari mediators, and that hostage deal and ceasefire negotiations were through senior Hamas political figure Khalil al-Hayah, not Sinwar.
There was also recent speculation that Sinwar had been killed because he had not been in communication with his usual contacts for some time.
Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the Oct. 7th terror attacks who took control of Hamas after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, was last seen in grainy footage lurking in a Khan Younis tunnel.
There are reports that he surrounds himself with hostages as human shields to avoid assassination.
Kobi Michael, Yahya Sinwar’s former Shin Bet interrogator, told the Daily Mail that he carries “about 25 kg of dynamite, and around him are at least 20 hostages.”
“A few times we have had the chance to kill him, but if we do, he will kill all the hostages around him,” Michael said.
“Yahya Sinwar will never surrender,” Michael told the London Times. “He’s dreaming about staying on as the leader of Hamas in Gaza. He’s thinking now about the next massacre. That man must be killed.”
Thank God For Israel’s Bravery – Zoe Strimpel
There’s the real world in which there are bullies, aggressors, and perpetrators – and the proper response to them.
And there’s the fake world in which right and wrong and life and death don’t seem to exist: in which the victim is blamed for angering, and then responding to, the bully. In which the bully becomes the victim as soon as anyone tries to stop them. In which mendacious respectability requires the condemnation of war, escalation, and the inflammation of tensions. In which anything is better than making the bully more angry. In which appeasement is the emotional and political order of the day. In which winning is taboo. In which the “international community” and dubious “international law” are weaponized against the good guys.
Israel is the real world. It alone among Western nations is awake. It is fighting a multi-pronged war with its Iran-funded enemies, and it is a war waged to be won. Israel is busy fighting a battle whose outcome could determine the fate of the entire world, in the West and beyond.
Israel knows it is facing an existential threat. We don’t seem to realize that, even though it is staring us in the face. Iran, in cahoots with other Islamist territories, plus Russia and China, could well take us all down – and would stand a much greater chance of doing so if Israel was behaving with less warlike courage, clarity of mission, ingenuity and persistence. (Telegraph-UK)
How A Farmer’s Courage Saved 120 Lives On Oct 7
As Israel solemnly marked one year since the devastating Hamas-led October 7 attacks, stories of extraordinary bravery continue to emerge. One such account, initially reported by the Times of Israel, stands out as a testament to the indomitable human spirit in the face of unimaginable horror.
Oz Davidian, a farmer from Maslul near the Gaza border, became an unexpected hero on that fateful day.
As Hamas terrorists unleashed chaos at the Nova music festival in Re’im, Davidian transformed his truck into a lifeline, rescuing approximately 120 young people from certain death.
Chilling dashboard footage from Davidian’s vehicle, released months after the attack, provides a harrowing glimpse into the terror that unfolded. It shows Davidian navigating through a landscape of destruction, dodging gunfire, and maneuvering off-road to evade being killed.
His voice can be heard warning passengers, “Terrorists! Watch out!” as he swerves to safety.
Davidian’s heroic efforts involved some 20 perilous trips between the festival grounds and nearby communities. Each journey spanned 15 to 17 kilometers, with Davidian ingeniously altering his route each time to outmaneuver the terrorists.
All the while, his own family sheltered in their home’s shelter, their fate uncertain.
The footage and subsequent interviews reveal the extent of the horror Davidian witnessed. He described scenes of unimaginable brutality, such as hundreds of corpses strewn across roads and fields, burning vehicles, and acts of violence too graphic to recount in detail.
In one heart-stopping moment, Davidian found himself face-to-face with terrorists. Quick thinking and his knowledge of Arabic allowed him to escape, though not without coming under fire. “By some miracle none of fire hit his vehicle,” he later recalled.
Davidian’s actions that day went beyond mere transportation. He became a beacon of hope for the terrified survivors, many of whom had been hiding for hours, convinced they had been abandoned.
One rescued girl even mistook him for a special forces operative, unable to believe that a civilian would risk everything to save them.
